Tuesday, February 1, 2011

St. Kitts

St. Kitts turned out to be our favorite port of call. My son was feeling marginally better the morning we anchored in, so we decided to go ahead and make our scheduled tour with Captain Sunshine.

Devin and Kenny greeted us just inside the port terminal with a sign and a smile. They promptly set about the business of making us feel welcome, taking time to show my son Kenny's badge - he's a police officer on the island I believe.

Devin was our driver for the day and he took us all over the downtown Bassterre area pointing out important buildings, talking about the culture, the weather, and the people. We stopped for a moment to get a picture of the infamous St. Kitts Rum Tree:

We stopped in a local neighborhood and picked up some sliced sugar cane and played with an itty, bitty baby monkey. We tried to get the 3 year old to eat some sugar cane later in the day, but he informed us it was "monkey food."

From there our tour took us up to Samuel Jefferson's house (ancestor to Thomas Jefferson.) The house is now home to a batik factory and beautiful gardens.

And then we were off to Brimstone Hill Fortress. This was the stop my husband, a history buff was most looking forward to. Boy...am I out of shape. These steps seemed to go on longer than I was expecting.

The view from the top. Yeah...the kid was bored, hot, and cranky. You can see why this was such a strategic location for the fort.

On the way back down The Little found an old rusted pay phone and promptly tried to call his Uncle Chris back in the states to let him know we were torturing him.

Devin found him though, and quickly put a smile back on his face:

Finally we were off to my most anticipated portion of the day. The beach. On the way back down from Brimstone hill we picked up Devin's daughter Devisha. She was such a wonderful playmate for my son the rest of the afternoon. We set out for South Friars Beach.

Devin pointing out my favorite view of our entire trip.

On the left side, the Atlantic ocean in all her turbulence. On the right side, the Caribbean Sea - calm and tranquil.

Devisha grasped my son's hand and led him back to our car so that we could make our way to South Friar's Beach on the Caribbean side. How sweet is this picture?

The beach of course was perfect. Not the pristine white sand we had seen previously, but gorgeous nonetheless. I'm in this shot, The Little on one side, Devisha on the other.

After several hours at the beach and another glorious open air shower (!) we drove back to the cruise ship terminal to leave St. Kitts behind. But we'll be back. It was a perfect day.

I am:

a lover of literature, music, good dark chocolate, fruit smoothies, finger painting, beach camping, small furry animals, butterflies, gardening, nature, rays of sun bursting through on a cloudy day and uninterrupted sleep. Blessed mama to an adorable 5 year old and wife to Super Hubby. Trying to live simply and with greater appreciation for each day.